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The article focuses on the business strategies and plans of James Quinn, chief information officer (CIO) of PHI Inc., to achieve growth and success. It states that Quinn will heading several projects in 2011 for the company that involve process improvement, cost savings, and effective rate of return. It indicates PHI will continue to reduce costs by outsourcing operation and renegotiates its agreements with information technology (IT) and services providers.

The article discusses the ways on how benefits from an information technology investment can be computed. Four basic methods for comparing project costs and returns including payback period, rate of return or return on investment (ROI), net present value and internal rate of return are tackled. Chief executive officer Ian Campbell of Nucleus Research Inc. recommends that all stakeholders, analysts and project managers have to work together to develop realistic discount factors and then apply them from project to project. However, Christopher Gardner of iValue LLC asserts that financial analysis requires an integration of corporate strategy and finance and high technology.

Reports on the complexity of securing a big information technology security budget. Factors which contribute to such complexity; Statement issued by Gene Fredricksen of Raymond James Financial Services Inc.; Demand from senior executives and corporate boards with regard to return on investment (ROI) and overall business benefit of increases in security spending; Calculation of ROI for security.

Focuses on the profitability of supply chain software investments. Actions taken by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. to maximize the return on supply chain management (SCM) software investments; Factors affecting SCM investments; SCM Initiatives of some retailers.